Foreign Policy Watchdog posted on 20 February 2026 an article titled "The Shifting Sands of Influence: China's Strategic Investment in Africa's Digital Infrastructure."
Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE currently control about 40 percent of Africa's internet bandwidth and hold over 65 percent of smartphone market share in key African countries. It is questionable if the West can respond effectively. China may shape the continent's digital destiny.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies published on 15 January 2026 a report titled "In China's Orbit: Beijing's Space Diplomacy in the Global South" by Matthew P. Funaiole, Brian Hart, and Aidan Powers-Riggs.
China is engaging in space cooperation across the Global South and Africa has emerged as a focal point of its efforts, especially Egypt, Ethiopia, and Namibia. This study provides satellite photography to document China's facilities in all three countries.
South Africa's The Star published on 21 December 2025 an article titled "Empowering Africa: How China's Tech Cooperation Fuels Progress" by Gideon Chitanga.
The article argues that Chinese government and companies have become critical partners in the development of Africa's digital systems and information and communications technology. For example, Huawei has constructed an estimated 70 percent of Africa's 4-G networks.
Polity published on 28 November 2025 a commentary titled "China's Infrastructure Partnerships in Africa Require Strategising Developmental Needs over Debt Risks and Security Vulnerabilities."
Chinese state banks and companies have financed numerous interest-bearing loans for African infrastructure projects. While much African infrastructure has been developed in this way, dependence on Chinese suppliers and management poses potential risks for African nations, especially concerning control over port and telecommunication systems.
Instituto Analisi Relazioni Internazionali published on 9 September 2025 an article titled "Chinese Surveillance Systems in Africa: A SWOT Analysis" by Daniele Balducci.
Some 22 African countries have contracted with Chinese companies for the acquisition of digital surveillance technologies. African countries have a variety of reasons for turning to Chinese companies, including affordable prices and wanting to diversify their sourcing. The article identifies strengths and weaknesses of partnering with Chinese companies.
The blog for the SOAS China Institute at the University of London published on 30 July 2025 a commentary titled "How China Is Reshaping Africa's Information and Media Landscape" by Daouda Cisse, Gaston Berger University in Senegal.
Chinese state media outlets like CGTN, Xinhua, and China Daily are now common features in African media spaces. Beijing is helping to reshape Africa's media and governance landscape. The issue becomes how African governments can benefit without compromising press freedom, data privacy, or democratic values.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies published on 18 November 2024 a commentary titled "China's Smart Cities in Africa: Should the United States Be Concerned?" by Jason Warner and Toyasi Alibade.
Chinese surveillance technology is in wide use in African cities governed in some cases by authoritarian regimes, which raises questions about its abuse. Nine African countries currently use Chinese-backed "smart city" surveillance systems.
Article 19, a UK-based international organization with 9 regional offices devoted to freedom of expression, posted on 18 April 2024 a report titled "The Digital Silk Road: China and the Rise of Digital Repression in the Indo-Pacific."
The report examines China's digital infrastructure and governance influence in Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, and Thailand. While the study does not deal with Africa, it offers lessons for China's digital engagement with the continent.
The report argues that assessing China's partnerships and what they mean for rising repression is vital to understanding China's ambitions to rewire the world and rewrite the rules that govern the digital space. By expanding its authoritarian model, China aims to ultimately supplant the tenets of internet freedom and rights-based principles of global digital governance.
The Information Society published in 2024 an analysis titled "Learning along the Digital Silk Road? Technology Transfer, Power, and Chinese ICT Corporations in North Africa" by Tin Hinane El-Kadi, London School of Economics.
The analysis investigates the technology spillovers emanating from two Chinese tech giants--Huawei and ZTE--in Algeria and Egypt. It argues that despite localizing activities that bear the promise of generating significant linkages, the two Chinese tech firms created no meaningful learning opportunities for domestic entities that contribute to technological upgrading. The Digital Silk Road risks creating new technological dependencies; locking local ICT actors into activities and relationships captured and defined by Chinese tech giants.
The Conversation published on 27 February 2024 a commentary titled "Africa Needs China for Its Digital Development--But at What Cost?" by Stephanie Arnold, University of Bologna.
China's involvement by companies such as Huawei and ZTE has been critical in African digital development. While it is often argued that China has been successful because it offers the cheapest technology, the author suggests it is due more to the fact that Chinese contractors are attractive partners because they offer full package solutions that include financing.
The downside is that China seeks to promote Chinese digital standards and norms, including its technological and ideological principles. That includes China's interpretation of human rights, data privacy, and freedom of speech. China's Digital Silk Road seeks to establish a Sino-centric global digital order. Over-reliance on a single infrastructure supplier makes the client more vulnerable and can result in digital authoritarianism. The remedy is to diversify infrastructure supply.
The Centre for International Governance Innovation published in October 2023 a study titled "Navigating Africa's Digital Partnerships in a Context of Global Rivalry" by Folashade Soule.
The study highlights how African governments are choosing their digital partners. Africa's choice of China as its preferred partner for digital infrastructure has more to do with China offering a suitable mix of financial and technological value and the lack of viable Western alternatives, than geopolitics.
Bloomberg published on 22 June 2023 an article titled "The Art of Navigating Global Disorder" by Brendan Murray.
While Morocco's security ties remain primarily with the United States and Europe, it is looking increasingly to China for engagement in industrial zones and port development.
The People's Map of Global China posted on 13 January 2023 a survey titled "Algeria" by Tin Hinane el Kadi.
Despite China's historically important relationship with Algeria, the Belt and Road Initiative has yet to lead to significant investments or job opportunities in the country.
Routledge published in 2022 a book containing a chapter titled "The Spread of Chinese Surveillance Tools in Africa: A Focus on Ethiopia and Kenya" by Bulelani Jili.
The author challenges the conception that China seeks to export a model of surveillance. Chinese companies operating in Africa such as Huawei and ZTE tend to adapt to local business practices, rather than follow Beijing's supposed geopolitical strategy. The evidence suggests that China helps fortify the political and social processes that were already in place in Ethiopia and Kenya.
The Council on Foreign Relations posted on 1 February 2022 an analysis titled "China's Digital Silk Road and Africa's Technological Future" by Motolani Agbebi.
Although the Digital Silk Road is largely a rebranding of China's continuing engagement in the digital technology sector, Chinese financing and Chinese companies have played a particularly significant role in providing telecommunications infrastructure in Africa.
The South African Institute of International Affairs published in November 2021 a policy brief titled "China-powered ICT Infrastructure: Lessons from Tanzania and Cambodia" by Motolani Agbebi, Gong Xue, and Zheng Yu.
The study looked at the socioeconomic and governance impacts of large Chinese ICT projects in Tanzania and Cambodia. Compared to other infrastructure developments, these projects had relatively limited socioeconomic and governance outcomes.
Rest of the World published on 1 December 2021 a commentary titled "The Real Reason China Is Pushing 'Digital Sovereignty' in Africa" by Yinka Adegoke.
This commentary looks at the deepening tech-telecoms relationship between China and nearly every African country and what it portends for the future of the continent. It concludes that China wants to use IT expansion in Africa as part of its effort to establish next generation technology standards.
The Center for American Progress published on 5 October 2021 a commentary titled "5 Things U.S. Policymakers Must Understand about China-Africa Relations" by Jordan Link.
To get U.S.-Africa policy right, the author argues Washington needs to understand the following five realities about China-Africa relations:
--Africans view the United States and China favorably.
--Chinese economic activities across Africa are not solely extractive and they create jobs.
--The claims that China is engaged in debt trap diplomacy lacks evidence, but transparency is still a key concern.
--Chinese state financing is paving the way for Chinese companies to dominate telecommunications infrastructure development in many African countries.
--Chinese commercial activity has harmed the environment in many African countries.
Rest of the World posted on 9 August 2021 an article titled "The Race to Build Africa's 5G Networks Is Entangled in a U.S. Push to Cut Huawei's Dominance" by Abubakar Idris.
The article looks at US telecoms vender Parallel Wireless to break into the 5G market in Africa. Parallel Wireless is based on open source technology called Open RAN, which promises to allow telecom operators to use different venders for different pieces of their 4G and 5G networks. The US is pushing the global internet into one that is US dominated and another that is China dominated. Parallel Wireless and Open RAN are gaining market share in Africa but face severe competition from China's Huawei and ZTE.
The China-Africa Research Initiative published in August 2021 a paper titled "China's Digital Silk Road in Africa and the Future of Internet Governance" by Henry Tugendhat and Julia Voo.
The authors concluded that Chinese lending for technology projects in Africa was actually greater before the launch of the Digital Silk Road than after. They also found that there is very little relationship between Africa's loan-recipient countries and those who made public statements of support for Huawei at the International Telecommunications Union.
